Cash, not least in the form of bank notes, will continue to fulfill a large and vital role or function in payment systems all around the world for a long time to come. Although electronic payment systems in which cash in the form of bank notes have been eliminated are becoming more and more widespread, there is still a large need to cater for transactions that are simple and have no need for complex electronic equipment.
The simplicity of using cash for performing transactions is, however, closely and inevitably coupled to problems of how to prevent unauthorized access to the cash. Such problems are relevant with respect to all stages involved when preparing for and making any transaction involving cash. For example, when preparing for and when performing transport of cash from a shop, retail location or automatic teller machine (ATM) to a cash depository, such as a cash center, or financial institute, such as a bank, there are typically a large number of procedures and protection systems involved in order to prevent unauthorized access to the cash. Needless to say, these procedures are typically very complicated and involve the use of expensive equipment and staff.
Further related to these, more direct, problems of preventing unauthorized physical access to the cash, are problems of how to simplify and facilitate for interacting entities in a cash handling system in terms of handling ownership and responsibility with respect to cash during different stages of controlling flow of cash in a cash handling system.
Such problems and related problems have been discussed in the prior art. Examples of such disclosures include US patent application publication 2004/0030622 in which a currency management method and system is described. A currency transportation plan is established that includes a currency delivery schedule for transport of currency between nodes in a system. The schedule is established using information pertaining to a currency inventory, a forecast for currency demand and costs of handling currency.
Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 6,655,584 discloses a system for handling banknotes within a geographically limited area. An information center communicates with ATMs to exchange data relating to banknotes. Transport vehicles transport the banknotes to and from the machines in response to orders from the information center issued on the basis of information sent from the machines to the information center.